Hard lessons

Our sermon Sunday was very convicting. Scott Duley shared that we have 5 faculties of the soul. Our mind, memory, conscience, will and affections. When Christ rescues a soul from the kingdom of darkness and transfers them into the kingdom of light there will be a very radical change in these 5 things.
MIND
How is our mind? What do we fill it with? What do we think on?
We talk about what we think about and we think about what we LOVE. What does come out of our mouths? Sweet water or bitter? Encouragement or Negativity? Do we speak about Christ?
The mind of the lost is all taken up with self. The lost person is controlled by self centered interests. The redeemed will focus on Christ's kingdom(not perfectly) The lost mind cannot comprehend the things of God.
The mind of the Christian wants to dwell on Christ.
MEMORY
What do we store in our memories? What books, music, movies or images? Is our memory a storage house of evil or self gratifying thoughts?
The memory of the redeemed is filled with scripture, sermons and truths of God.
What did we put in this week - does it honor God?
CONSCIENCE
This is the voice of God to our souls. Even the lost person feels a twang in their conscience when they sin up to a certain point. Of course a continuation in blatant sin can result in the awful Romans 1 consequence of being turned over to a reprobate mind.
To the believer, our conscience is a road map of how to love, honor and obey God. Our conscience leads us to walk with Christ.
WILL
What we want before the light shines in our souls and what we want after it shines should be very different.
Scott encouraged us to keep a journal for a week of what we DO. What we do shows our will clearly. WOW!!?!?!
AFFECTIONS
What we love. What do we go after? What excites us?

These faculties of the mind give us much to call on God for.
If we are believers and our mind is filled with other things we need to run to Christ as beggars and ask him to transform our minds. Our minds are transformed when we drink deeply of God's word and spend time with Him.

We can use these as a test. Do we have a general pattern in our lives of loving Him, Thinking of Him and filling our memory with things of God. Are we yielding our wills to God or running away? How do we spend our time?
Again, we can use these convicting questions to cry out to God for help. Help me Lord to use these 5 faculties of my soul to love You.

Another great coop!

John's class is so excited about their Statue of Liberty costumes and their Hershey's candy!
We studied New York and Pennsylvania this week. Hershey, PA is one of my favorite spots in the US.



John, Elijah, Avery, Jared, Mitchell and Mrs. Lynn in the back!



I think my hat is on crooked!




Rebekah, Caroline, Claire, Molly and Noah B.
Mrs Michelle, too!




Mrs. Diane and Mrs. Grace are holding down the fort in the nursery.

Ben, Mark, John Parker and Andrew with their Hershey bars.

Ben's class made crystals today.

Hannah, Ben, and Martha.

Claire's group made Statue of Liberty costumes and punched tin art!

Joshua, Eli, Jesse, Macain, Austin and Molly

Sculpting the body.

Where is her head?!?!?!?

Is that the right head on our lovely Lady of Liberty?!?!?!

Ryan, Noah, Anna, Julie, MacKenzie, Laura, Olivia and Margaret

The older group sculpted a replica of Lady Liberty! It turned out really well.

I am thankful for such a great group of ladies to

coop with this semester!

Overwhelmed but Hopeful

I have been a little stressed out this week. I just cannot seem to get it all together. I have been feeling inadequate, frankly. Well, tonight's sermon by Chuck Baggett really hit my nail on the head. I AM inadequate and I need to feel humbled by that thought as I turn then to the ONE who is adequate and run to Him. I woke up in the middle of the night wondering why I do not seem to get even a little of what I want to get done, actually done. I just could not do anything but call out to God for help. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift in His Son. Oh Jesus accomplished it all perfectly, and we need to have humble and contrite hearts and turn to Him.
I definitely feel needy for Him and I am thankful to Him to be at that point. I pray He will use this time to mold me into more of His likeness.
I am so thankful for His kindness to me and His mercy which is so undeserved by me. What a glorious God!
I am thankful for words of challenge and encouragement from His word that never leaves us as we are!
Our memory verse this week for school is Philippians 1:6. "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."
Thank you Lord for not leaving us as we are. We are adequate in Christ Jesus.

Working our way through the US

It seems like all my posts lately have been about school. Well, that is very reflective of my life. It has been taking me ALL day to finish school with everyone. We are doing more KONOS this semester than usual, but I still cannot figure out why it is taking me all day to get just school done! Anyway, we are studying New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware this week.
Anna is doing a very interesting report on the Amish. We all have enjoyed learning where they come from and more about their beliefs.
I am hoping we will finally get around to cooking our apple crisp today in honor of the "Big Apple".
Happy Birthday to my niece, Jessica!
I love you!!

Great coop today!

Smile Margaret!



The group 2 girls!

Ryan looks a bit like a crayfish himself!

This is a shot of our lunch today! With 50 kids it takes a lot of planning and work to get lunch set up. Karen and I have been the "lunch ladies" for the past 3 weeks! Whew! We are worn out.

John's class with Mrs. Tammy and the big whale!

This was a neat experiment. They stuck their hand in a plain ziploc and in a ziploc full of shortening. The hand in the shortening ziploc did not feel cold. Both ziplocs were in ice water.

This demonstrated how whale blubber keeps a whale warm.

Our coop today was incrustaceanously fun! The older group dissected a crayfish. It was cool - here are some pics. Thanks Mrs. Yonea and Mrs. Rachelle for all your hard work.

Mrs. Yonea is carefully explaining the process of dissection.



EWWWWWWW!



Anna is lovin' this!

Mrs. Rachelle is a pro!



Concentration!









Mrs. Rachelle and her friend the crayfish. All is fair in love and science!

Ben's group has been learning some fun things as well. They painted a lighthouse today.

Thank you Mrs. Kim and Mrs. Tina!

Ben gave a great report on Massachusetts!

Claire's Group made lighthouses today and shell picture frames. They are learning a lot as well.

Thank you Mrs. Lori and Mrs. Michelle!

More pics of cooking

Anna Beth's reaction to the brown bread --- EWWW! It tastes like sweet feed!!

It was barely edible. Scott, of course, was the most fond of the stuff out of all of us.

Here is a pic of the bread cooking.

Voila! The finished product!!

Bon Apetit!

This is a neat book we have been getting some of our recipes from.

Happy Cooking!

Pictures of Cooking our way through Boston

Today we studied Massachusetts. We cooked Boston Baked Beans in honor of "Beantown" and learned how the Puritans would not cook on Sunday, so they started their beans on Saturday night and slow cooked them all night long to have on Sunday after church. I too have been convicted of really concentrating more on our Dear Lord on Sunday than I previously have been doing. I have decided not to even turn on the computer and really spend the day after church quietly resting or visiting with friends. Really to make the Lord's Day a special , not an ordinary day. Not out of strict legalism, but to honor the gracious Savior of my soul. How needy I am of a day, to stop the normal hustle and bustle and quietly reflect and think on Him and His goodness and kindness to such a one as I.

Claire Bear stirring the Boston Beans. They turned out to be quite yummy!

The Boston brown bread was a little tricky. We mixed it up and poured it into a coffee can to steam on top of the stove for 2 hours. I hope it is edible!!!

We all had fun mixing up the Boston brown bread. It had molasses, soured milk, raisins, walnuts, rye flour and cornmeal.

Here is the bread ready to steam!

Ben is busy with a report on Massachusetts and Anna is doing one comparing and contrasting the Puritans and the Pilgrims.

We are going to watch Moby Dick in a bit. The study of whaling has been interesting and we really enjoyed the book, Carry on Mr. Bowditch.